From the Flowers
by SeyUtahi
Summary: Ino was self absorbed and materialistic. Then after she becomes a teenager, her life's perspective changes! Watch as Ino catches up and surpasses the rest of the Rookie Nine on her own. SasuNaruNeji x Ino x KibaShinoShikaLee and way more
1. Chapter 1: Preface

A/N: Okay, This story is about Ino. Ino only! She's awesome. Admit it.

Pairings: SasNaruNeji x Ino x KibaShinoShikaLee AND MAYBE MORE! Yeah, I'm a loser.

Naruto is to Kishimoto as this story is to me! 3

* * *

A lonely little yellow daffodil swayed by the darkened foliage near the Konoha Genin Academy.

It had been a few years.

All of the rookie nine were around 16 years old.

Footsteps neared the little daffodil.

"Why are you all alone? You are so vibrant, yet you cannot shed your beauty in this place. It's too dark. You'll wither and die." A soft voice said.

_Sway_

_Sway_

Snap. A sound was heard.

The yellow daffodil had been cut from its spot, taken into the tender care of the holder of the soft voice.

"Don't worry. I'll be your friend." The daffodil was hugged tightly into a delicate grasp and promptly whisked away from the horrid darkness.

* * *

Ino sighed. Since her fourteenth birthday, she had come to see the light. Life wasn't about the theatrics. The drama. The looks.

Her long, blonde hair was down, not in the high ponytail she had kept it in a long time ago. The soft strands blew across her face as she stared out the open window in her kitchen.

A yellow daffodil was present in a clear glass vase, in the center of the kitchen table.

The wind blew softly. Her hair swayed back, tickling her shoulders. The daffodil shook.

Ino was wearing a normal black jacket and normal shorts. Normal.

No longer would she go back to being that self-absorbed girl she was in her pre-teens.

_I wasn't that bad back then though._ She thought.

It was true. She had still saved Sakura from becoming a nobody and had swallowed her pride to say that Sakura had bloomed into a flower even more beautiful than Ino herself.

Ino sighed again. She absently twirled a strand of hair around her index finger.

_I wonder what I should do today. _

She stared at the daffodil, who was staring quite contently back at her.

_I should…I should train. _

She quickly covered her face with her jacket sleeves and blocked off any tears that threatened to drip out of her weak tear ducts.

_Weak. _

She gasped and sniffed. She swiftly stood up, pushing the chair she was sitting on behind her. Bravely trying on a little smile, she told the daffodil to wait for her until she had gotten home.

As if nodding, the daffodil swayed and a water droplet fell from one of its petals.

Ino grabbed her shuriken holster and departed, carefully closing the door behind her.

* * *

"Ino-PIG!" A faintly annoying voice rang in Ino's ears. It was obviously Sakura. Ino turned away and picked up her slow walking pace to a swift stride.

"Hey, hey, what's up? Don't brush me off like that piggy!" Sakura teased and mocked.

Ino's tear ducts trembled again.

Hiding her face from the pink haired menace, Ino stopped in her walk. Sakura skidded to a halt behind her.

"Go away Sakura. I need to go t-train…" Ino tried to keep a straight voice but as she spoke, her words faltered.

"Humph! How RUDE." Sakura huffed and kept pestering Ino about manners.

Ino snapped.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" She rushed off into the forest, leaving a trail of fallen leaves and a confused Sakura in her wake.

* * *

Ino finally reached a clearing in the thick forest near the Hokage Monument. She panted and then took a deep breathe. She had gotten away from Sakura.

Sakura had gotten more annoying as the years passed. She used to be nicer.

_I guess all the friendliness and fun went to her head. _Ino sighed but then realized _It doesn't matter. She's still…she's still stronger than me…_

"IT DOESN'T MATTER!" She screamed at herself. Birds flew out of the trees.

"I can do it too! She's not special…She's not." Ino trailed off and fell to the ground, putting her face in her hands. "UGH!" She screamed out again in frusteration.

A figure stepped out of the shadowed foliage behind her.

"Ugh, stop yelling. You're annoying voice makes my ears hurt." A deep voice.

Ino's head snapped up to look at the newcomer. She then blushed and mumbled a sorry.

_Wait. _

"Just let me train in peace." The voice demanded and started moving away.

_Hold on, buddy. Just a MOMENT. _

"Hey." Her voice stopped the figure in its tracks. The figure turned its head to look back at her. Her blushing stopped immediately.

"Don't look down on me as if I were weaker than you." She stated and closed her eyes, letting her anger seep away.

"Hm…" The voice said. "Maybe if you weren't weak, you could say that with strength to back it up with."

_WHAT!?_

Ino was pissed!

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Ino stuffed her face in her arms and yelled again in frusteration.

"I DON'T CARE IF YOU THINK IM WEAK! I'M NOT! I'M NOT!" She kept yelling and screaming.

The figure sighed and then glared. "Then prove it."

In a flash, the figure was behind her, holding a kunai to the back of her neck.

Ino gasped in surprise.

"You're not even worth my time." The figure 'feh'ed and walked off, leaving a very sad, lonely, and crying Ino behind.

_Why is it only me?_

The other rookies had become Jounins. Even Sakura and Naruto! What about her? Still. Chuunin. Yeah. Not. Good.

_Why?_


	2. Chapter 2: Start

A/N: Okay, so basically I totally forgot about this story until I got a review and got my butt kicked back into shape! IM COMING BACK :D

--

Ino stood up from her spot in the grass and wiped the dripping sorrows from her face. With a determined look, she remembered the jerk who just told her off a few minutes ago. _'Damn brat.'_ She thought angrily. She hadn't even seen his face properly! What kind of a ninja was THAT?

Letting out a deep breath, she started doing some warm-up stretches. She decided to go for a few jumping jacks (10) and some pushups (20). Not a lot, but realize, she's not using her chakra at the moment.

Ino opened her eyes slowly and took in the sunlight that seeped through the treetops. Nodding in determination to catch up, she started throwing the knives.

An hour passes. Ino is completely wiped out.

"Only a freaking hour." She pants and wipes her forehead free of pouring sweat, "I really have been slacking off these days." She fell to the grass, exhausted.

"But this is okay. I can take things my own pace." The hard look was still in her eyes, "How about, and hour today, and every day from now on, I add 10 minutes?"

Even though she felt awkward talking to herself, she agreed with her plan. Progressing slowly but surely is best, after all. "I suddenly feel like I can do this!"

Her endorphines were coming into play. She grinned cheekily and sprinted back to the village, still drenched in sweat, her black sports jacket hanging off her hips, oversized t-shirt stuck in some places to her sweaty body, and shorts blowing breezily in the wind.

"INO-CHAN!" A few little boys called out, grinning like mad. "INO-HIME!" They found their flower princess. They ran towards her before she could lay a finger on the doorknob to her flower shoppe.

"DANG IT YOU GUYS! I WAS SO CLOSE!" She snarled playfully and proceeded to wrestle with them outside of the store.

"GYAAAH!" Some more boys came running down the street and tackled her from the side.

These little boys were orphans down the street, across from her flower store. They used to cause ruckus wherever they went and were hated by the villagers, but Ino soon changed that. It all started when they made the dreadful mistake of attempting to destroy her flower shoppe.

FLASHBACK

"Look guys!" A little boy with rusty red hair and freckles pointed his skinny little finger at Ino's flower shop, "That girlie thinks life is about pretty, sparkly things and flowers!"

They all took a turn guffawing and making rude comments about her store. Then, the red head spoke up again, "Who wants to go show her that life isn't fair?"

A loud raise of cheers broke out from the crowd of little youngsters.

"Let's go"  
"Crush it"  
"RAAID RAAAAAID!!"

They ran into her shop like a storm and ALMOST destroyed her beautiful flowers. However.

"What do you. brats. think. you. are. doing." A dark ominous aura from the back counter loomed over them all and froze them in their places.

The boys stuttered and turned to look at the dark cloud approaching.

It was Ino, and boy was she mad. She looked like a constipated cow that realized it was eating beef. The glass vase in her hand shattered in her tight grasp.

The boys were scared. Some peed in their pants. But then Ino's cloud dissipated and she immediately beamed at them, innocently,

"Would you like to purchase some flowers :3 ?"

Yes, the boys were terrified. They ran from her shop screaming.

A few days later, they tried again. But this time, they looked through the window to see if she was there first.

She was there alright. But she wasn't what she looked like before, the first time they met her. She looked like a princess! There were water sparkles in her hair and she was holding a cute green teapot to water her flowers. The dewdrops on the flowers around her only enhanced her beauty.

Her long strands of hair were captured in a sloppily done bun, but amazingly looked meant to be and her blue eyes looked like sapphires shining in the sun. Her light blue sundress and lack of shoes finished off their "Fairy princess" look of her and they all turned back to the orphanage, swearing never to speak of the scene again.

However, the next day they went to go see her, she was normal again, and they decided to raid her store again. But, their plans were thwarted when they saw her glaring at them. She whacked them all in the head hard with a metal vase. Ouch.

"Do you think life is like sparkles and roses!?" Ino growled at them. Their jaws dropped. They were going to say that to her!

"Hypocrite!" Some of the boys shouted and another said vengefully, "Says you. In your little heaven of flowers..."

He got another smack of the metal vase.

Ino sighed like a mother and reprimanded them, "Aren't you guys the ones with the sugar coated reality? Do you think that your lives will become better if you ruin my store?"

The boys looked at each other and some looked sorry.

"I've been watching you guys ruin the village every which way you felt like it. But if you think you're going to ruin MY flower shoppe, think again. If you want to improve your lives, start now." Ino threw some watering cans and brooms at the boys. "You can work here until I've decided that your rehab process has been complete!"

The boys hesitantly caught the items and looked at Ino again.

"It's your life, choose how you wanna live it." Ino winked and went into the back to get more flowers.

Once the day was done, the boys were prepared to make a break for the door. But just in time, Ino came from the back with a bundle of flowers in her arms. Despite her old want to be like an "older woman", she still looked like a little girl. This obviously attracted the little boys. So when she gave each of them flowers, one by one, they all blushed and averted their eyes.

She mistook it for a gesture about her being ugly and she pouted. Rude, ungrateful brats.

"Okay, I guess you can go now. But promise you won't go back to the way you were?" She had such a cute look on her face that none of them had the courage to say no.

They never told Ino, but they gave her the utmost respect. They steadily changed their reputations from "Those damned orphans" to "Those cute boys that help me carry my groceries home!".

They were all proud. This was all for Ino.

--End FLASHBACK--

Ino was still 5'2", you see, and still really tiny. So when the boys jumped on her, she still fell down hard.

"Oww." She whined and rolled onto her back. She just came back from training darn it!

"Sorry Ino-chan!" A red-head with freckles grinned and offered his hand down to her. He pulled her up and into his chest.

Wrapping his arms around her, he attempted to whisper manly-like, "You and me, babe, let's go have lunch."

Unable to restrain her laughter, she let out a big, "PFFFFFFT!" and laughed into his chest. His head rested on hers and he sighed.

"Why don't you take me seriously?"

"How can I!? That was incredibly lame!" She was starting to calm down. "Jeebus, Kay! You got tall!" She stood back and looked at him.

"How tall are you now?" She asked.

"5' 7"" he said, offhandedly.

"DANG! I'M SO JEALOUS!" She threw a punch at him. Of course, it caught him on the stomach and he laughed at her attempt to harm him. She wasn't using chakra.

"SHORT STUFF!" He yelled and ran back to the orphanage.

"DAMN YOU! I'M OLDER THAN YOU BY 2 YEARS!" She shouted back as loudly as she could. But she was still unsatisfied, "RAwR!"

"Rawr?" A masculine voice resonated behind her.

Ino flipped around only to see someone she ranked #2 on her hate list. Sasuke Uchiha.

"YEAH RAWR! MAN, I'M SO PISSED RIGHT NOW!" Ino raged and shot a meaningful look towards the window of the orphanage that had a curious lump by the windowsill.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, thinking this was part of her fangirl act. Yeah right.

Ino said a quick ,"Gotta go then." and went into her flower shop.

Sasuke was now very confused. Wasn't the girl supposed to jump at him? Hug him? Attack? WTF? Oh well. Better for him. He stuffed his angsty hands in his pockets and proceeded to stroll down Konoha.

This was just the beginning of Ino's metamorphasis, though :


End file.
